Most current television viewers subscribe to a cable television or direct broadcast satellite (DBS) service to obtain their television content. Typically, the cable or DBS provider provides each subscriber with one or more set top boxes (STB) or similar television receiver devices that are able to receive and decode television content and to provide the decoded content to the viewer's television.
Many cable or DBS operators now support thousands or even millions of subscribers, most of whom have at least one television receiver device in their possession. These subscribers may be spread over a relatively wide geographic area, and may operate a variety of different models and versions of television receivers that provide any number of different features. Many operators would like to improve communicating with the customers and their receiver devices, and would especially like to provide messaging to groups of customer devices based upon their particular geography, demographics, receiver make/model, services used, or the like. This is currently very difficult due to various technical and logistical challenges.
It is therefore desirable to create systems, devices and methods for exchanging messages between a service provider and television receivers operated by subscribers. These and other desirable features and characteristics will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background section.